Unbelievable sightings in the last week

The sightings in the last week have been really unbelievable! A lioness killing a wildebeest to rhinos fighting to baby leopard cubs and more…

Here are a few pictures and descriptions of a couple of the sightings that we were blessed with in the last couple of days…

This rhino and her 4 month old calf are offering us endless pleasure as they are both very relaxed and don’t seem to mind us being there at all! The poor youngster has some scratch marks on his front left shoulder, probably from the male lions in the area but it is healing very well with only a couple of scabs remaining. Luckily mom was there to protect it!

While looking for Makwela and her new cubs one afternoon, we stumbled upon this lioness from the Xhimungwe pride. We followed her for about and hour, seeing her walk past a rhino and her calf drinking at a dam near the lodge. Because of the rhinos she did not drink at that dam but continued towards Leopard Hills and drank from the camp pan! After that we heard her roar twice before she moved west into a drainage line and we were unable to follow.

We decided to go and have our sun downer at the end of the clearing in front of Leopard Hills. And a little while later the lioness graced us with her precence again! We followed her as she headed east towards a herd of wildebeest. We gave her some space and sat listening in the darkness with all our lights off. And then, the rhino and her calf came from the opposite direction and gave the wildebeest a fright, sending them running straight into the lioness!

Unfortunately a hyena had heard the distress call uttered by the wildebeest and arrived at the scene shotrly after the lioness started feeding. During the night the lioness was robbed from her kill and there was not much left the next morning. Luckily she did have her fair share and was seen the next day with a bulging stomach.

Here in winter time we get the most beautiful sunsets. Here is one that I took last week while have a drink in the Sand River

This male rhino charged us and realizing that we were not the culprit, ran past our vehicle, charging another male rhino who had 2 cows with him. The two had a bit of a fight and all four rhinos dissapeared into the bush at such a pace that we were unable to follow them.

This morning we were lucky enough to see leopard cubs again! All 3 Makwela’s young ones are doing very well and are fit and healthy! How quickly they grow…